Logging time and expenses

Time & expenses are the entries you bill from: hours worked, costs paid on the client's behalf and fixed fees. Every entry belongs to a matter, and you can log entries on matters you can edit.

Log an entry#

1. Click Log time or expense on the Time & expenses page or a matter's Time & expenses tab, or stop the timer.
2. Choose the Type:
   • Time: a Duration (hours) and a Rate. Hours are rounded up to the next 0.1 hour (6 minutes).
   • Expense: a Quantity and Unit price, an Expense category, and Receipts you can attach.
   • Flat fee: a fixed Amount.
3. Pick the Matter, the Date and the Firm user who did the work. You can pick the matter's assigned lawyers and staff, or yourself.
4. For time, pick a Category if your firm uses them. See Categories.
5. Write a Description. It's required, and it's what appears on the invoice.
6. Decide whether it's billable. Tick Non-billable for work you won't charge for; tick Show this entry on the invoice (as "No charge") to show the client the work anyway. Flat fees are always billable.
7. Click Save, or Save and create another / Save and duplicate to keep going.

Mattersimple works out the amount for you: hours × rate, or quantity × unit price.

Rates#

A time entry's rate starts as the member's hourly rate, set on the Team page (see Inviting and managing your team). You can change it on any entry. Matters have no rates of their own.

Who sees and changes entries#

Entries follow their matter: anyone who can see it sees its entries, and anyone who can edit it can log, edit and delete them.